US Court Gives Another Chance To Indian Students Caught In OPT Fraud To Live And Work'

A recently approved “stipulated dismissal agreement” in a US district court has provided relief to over 90 foreign nationals, most of them Indians, who were caught in an Optional Practical Training (OPT) fraud perpetrated by their former employer.

These individuals had faced re-entry denials or visa ineligibility, including work visas. However, following the court’s order, all penalties against them have been lifted.

According to an individual, a native of Chennai who was a victim of the fraud, shared his experience of how he got involved in such a scam. The man, who had joined a company apparently flagged by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), faced refusal of entry when he returned from a brief vacation.

Speaking to The Times Of India, he explains that this company had been approved for conducting OPT. He had been with this company for several months before realising he wasn’t assigned any projects to work on under proper guidance, as required by OPT regulations, and subsequently shifted to another firm. Despite his brief tenure with this suspected blacklisted company, he suffered consequences.

Jesse Bless, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, told the publication that after months of negotiations, the US Department of Homeland Security agreed to examine the government’s internal records.

“DHS confirmed these plaintiffs (former students, undergoing OPT training and swindled by their OPT-employer company) are not inadmissible to the US or ineligible for a visa simply because they worked for a nefarious OPT-company. In other words, with the inadmissibility lifted, these plaintiffs have now regained another opportunity to live and work in the US,” Bless stated.

International students are typically granted one year of Optional Practical Training (OPT) to gain work experience, with STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) students eligible for an additional two years.

According to the Open Doors Report for the academic year 2022-23, there were 270,000 Indian students studying in the US, with 69,000 participating in OPT.

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